


Something to Fight For

by SaltyStarChild (Charonte_Queen)



Series: Never Really Over [2]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alex Manes Deserves Nice Things, Alex Manes also Needs a Hug, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Communication Issues, Gen, Idiots in Love, M/M, Michael Guerin Deserves Nice Things, Michael Guerin Needs a Hug, Soft Boys, They're Trying Okay?, it's not a super deep one but it is a start, they have a conversation sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 23:11:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20629091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charonte_Queen/pseuds/SaltyStarChild
Summary: Maria told Michael to find and talk to Alex...but it's Alex who comes to him for a talk.[Sequel to Never Really Over]





	Something to Fight For

Michael needed to think.

As much as he wanted to go straight to Alex like Maria had told him to, he wasn’t so sure it would be much of a conversation. Not after the way Alex had left after showing him the partly rebuilt console. _Definitely_ not after Maria’s interpretation of Alex’s request to be friends—that revelation had sent his brain screeching to a halt only to start running in circles around the thought. He didn’t want to get his hopes up again. His heart wouldn’t be able to take it anymore.

So, yeah, Michael needed to think, and being around Alex was anything but conducive to thinking anyway.

He inevitably found himself in the bunker under his trailer, fingers running lightly over the alien technology. The console glowed under his touch, leaving a trail along the surface behind his fingers like a comet’s tail. A pulse like a heartbeat echoed under his fingertips. The only real link he had to where he and his siblings came from and it was one of the most gorgeous things he had ever seen. And it had sent Alex backpedaling out of the bunker and away from Michael.

It had hurt. It had felt like rejection. But then…

Then Maria had told him that she thought he may have misinterpreted Alex’s words. Was it possible he could have also misread his _actions_? If that was the case, then why…

Why did Alex run away? What did Michael do _wrong_? What wasn’t he seeing?

“Damn it!” he sighed as he slammed a hand against the console.

_bzzzt…bzzzt…bzzzt_

He forced himself to pack away those thoughts for now. He fished his phone out of his pocket and hit the answer button without looking to see who it was calling.

“What?” he groaned. Silence followed for a beat before:

_“Hey.”_

“Alex?” he asked, surprised and breathless in the way Alex always manages to make him.

_“Yeah,”_ Alex sighed. He sounds more than a little nervous. _“I was hoping maybe we could…talk. About earlier?”_

“I don’t know, you gonna walk off before the conversation’s over?” he asked before he could stop himself. He knew he shouldn’t lash out like this, but he was still hurt about earlier.

_“Michael,” _Alex pleaded.

One word was all it took. He wasn’t sure he was quite ready for it, but Michael always had a problem saying _no_ to the people he cared about, Alex more so than anyone.

“I’m in my bunker. Just…holler when you get here, I guess.”

_“I’ll bring beer.”_

Michael hung up without another word and shoved his phone back into his pocket. He’ll be having that conversation Maria told him to have a lot sooner than he’d been planning. He needed to be a lot less sober for this. At least when there’s alcohol in his system, he had something to blame the outpouring of emotion on other than Alex Manes scrambling his brains. Because, regarding Alex Manes, logic never applied, and Michael didn’t know how to deal with that. Feelings had always been more Max’s area of expertise than his, and he’d rather die than ask his brother for advice.

He knew how he felt. He knew it overwhelmed him. He knew it made words come pouring out of his mouth before he even had a chance to think about what he was saying.

-//-

By the time Alex announced his arrival, Michael had just finished adjusting some of his calculations.

Taking a deep breath to try and settle any nerves, he went over what he wanted to talk about: why Alex left after seeing the console, does Alex still love him because Michael still loves _him_, and, if he does, that Michael wanted to take him on a real date.

Alex is sitting in one of the lawn chairs, fingers tapping a rhythm on the neck of a beer bottle, when he finally pulls himself up and out of the bunker. They don’t say anything to each other as Michael closes the door and moves the Airstream back over the entrance. They don’t speak as he walks leisurely to the chair next to Alex and the six-pack of beer and takes a seat. The silence is only broken by the _pop_ and hiss of the cap coming off a bottle.

He took a swig and turned his head to the man next to him.

“You wanted to talk?”

“Uh, yeah,” Alex cleared his throat, fingers never stopping their pattern. Michael tries to focus on that rather than the way Alex’s tongue darts out to wet his bottom lip. “I don’t want you to leave.”

Michael lowers the bottle from his lips.

“What? The hell are you talking about, Private?”

“I know it’s selfish, but, Guerin—_Michael_—I don’t want you to leave the planet,” Alex admitted.

“Seriously, Alex, I ain’t sure I know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re trying to leave the planet!” Alex yelled, voice cracking and thick with emotion. The quiet that follows is heavy and only broken by the occasional sniffle as Alex tried to control the tears in his eyes. It reminds him of prom night, when he saw the pain in Alex’s eyes but the intense need to control it keeping him calm until he was alone. “And, and I don’t want you to _go_!”

“Alex…”

“But what I want doesn’t matter. It’s not up to me,” he said as he wipes at his eyes with that same quick efficiency to try and regain control. Alex reached over the arm of the lawn chair furthest from Michael. What he pulls up is an inconspicuous black knapsack.

He tossed it into Michael’s lap.

It wasn’t very heavy and the way whatever was inside was shaped is a little jagged. He looked up at Alex, but he’s looking at the ground and his shoulders are tense. His movements are slow as he pulled open the bag and saw the glow from inside.

“Alex, where—”

“The cabin Jim Valenti left me. I was going to give it to you when we talked earlier but then…then you showed me the console, said you were rebuilding the ship and trying to—to leave,” Alex sighed, his voice still shaky. “I don’t want you to go, Michael. But…you want answers you probably can’t get on Earth, and you deserve them. I don’t—I want you to have answers, but I wish you didn’t have to leave to get them.”

“Do you still love me?” Michael asked suddenly. Alex’s eyes snap up to meet his, wide and shocked with the last of his tears slipping down his cheek.

“That doesn’t have anything to do with—”

“It has everything to with it, Private.”

For a beat, they just stare at each other. Michael can physically feel his brain slow to a stop and words form on the tip of his tongue.

“Because I still love _you_,” he said. He watched Alex’s face lose its tension and jaw go slack, like the news surprised him. “I still love you, and that’s the _only_ thing that matters to me. I want to find my place, my home, and I’ve always found that with you. But if I can’t have you, yeah, finding where I come from is the next best thing.

“I wanna take you out on the cheesy kind of dates we didn’t get to have in high school. I wanna hold your hand round town. I want the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do before bed to be kissing you. I wanna listen to you play guitar and sing along to old Green Day songs. I just—I want _you_. I just want you.”

Alex still looks shocked and a little like he might start to cry again. It made Michael’s stomach drop. His goal wasn’t to make him cry, damnit; they were supposed to be having a _conversation_. So far, this was a lot of him talking at Alex like usual.

“Come on, man, _say_ something,” Michael pleaded. “Don’t just sit there!”

“You…still love me?”

“Were you not listening or something? That’s what I just said. You gonna answer me or not?”

“Of course I still love you,” Alex said. Yet even as he said it, his face started to scrunch up like he’d swallowed a lemon. “But—”

“But _what_, Alex? Because it looks to me like ten years didn’t change shit about how we feel, but you keep running away from me!”

“It’s complicated, Michael,” Alex sighed, running a hand down his face while his eyes held a sad acceptance that pissed him off.

“Then let’s uncomplicate!” He yelled back, desperate to make Alex understand. “It doesn’t have to be this hard if we’re willing to fight for this!”

He stared into the other’s eyes, walls crumbled down around him and desperate. A terrible thought crossed his mind and he was asking before he could stop himself:

“Do you even _want_ to fight for this?”

Alex was out of his seat in an instant, the doubt and fear in his voice seeming to have spurred him to action. He’s pulling Michael up to stand with shaking hands and wild eyes, and, once Michael’s on his feet, those hands move to cup his face between them. His eyes slide closed, trying to take what little comfort he can from the touch.

“I thought that was what I was doing,” Alex whispered into the small space between them.

“Could’ve fooled me,” he huffed. He leaned his head forward just enough to press their foreheads together. “Think we can fight together now instead?”

“We can try…but,” Alex’s grip was firm, keeping Michael from jerking back the way he wanted to. “It won’t magically fix anything over night. We’ve been making the same mistakes for ten years—that’s a hard habit to break.”

“Yeah, it is,” Michael agreed. “But we’ve already started to break them…we’re _talking_, aren’t we?”

Alex snorted. Their faces were only just far enough apart that their lips weren’t touching. Each word was a tease of a touch.

“Huh. I guess we are. Think we can keep it up?”

“I’ve never had a problem with that,” Michael smirked. Alex leaned away with a roll of his eyes.

“Seriously, Guerin?”

“Hey, you left the door wide open for it!”

“Just cause the door’s open doesn’t mean you have to walk through it,” Alex said dryly, exasperated. “Well, the mood for serious conversation has officially broken. Congratulations.”

Michael pushed back into the other man’s personal space, voice and eyes soft and fond under his amusement.

“How about we pick this talk back up in the morning, over breakfast?”

“Are you inviting me to stay the night, Guerin?” Alex teased, eyebrow quirked and smirk in its rightful place. Michael knew he would never see another sight quite like it.

“My door’s always open for you, Private,” Michael said. “But I was thinking we’d just meet at the Crashdown for those churro pancakes.”

“Probably a better idea. I have a feeling we wouldn’t get much sleep if I stayed,” Alex said before pressing a chaste kiss to Michael’s lips, sure to pull away before either of them could get carried away. “See you in the morning.”

Michael was dazed as Alex pulled away and started to walk back to his car. It wasn’t until Alex had opened the door and was starting to climb into the driver’s seat that he snapped out of his stupor. It had been a long time since they’d shared such an innocent kiss. The few times they’d managed to meet up the past ten years had always been filled with passionate desperation—there wasn’t time for sweet and innocent when there was no guarantee of seeing each other again. The difference made his heart skip a beat and threw him for a loop.

“Uh, yeah, see you.”

Alex smiled at him through the windshield as he started the car and put it in reverse.

For the first time, Alex’s leaving didn’t hurt and fill him with insecurity and doubt. Instead it left him feeling…_hopeful_.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I'm content with how this ended....for now, haha.
> 
> My tumblr is @salty-star-child if you want to chat


End file.
